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Harmon M. Hosch is the Helen and J. Edward Stern Endowed Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. Professor Hosch earned his PhD in Personality and Social Psychology from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York City. He has risen through the academic ranks at UTEP and is the founding director of the Center for Law and Human Behavior. Since he came to UTEP he has had two leaves of absence. In the early 1980's he served as a Fulbright Scholar teaching and researching in Mexico. In the late 1990's he served as a visiting scientist at the National Science Foundation. In this capacity he was program officer for the Law and Social Science Program. Hosch is a Fellow of the American Psychology-Law Society, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science.
Hosch has held a number of administrative positions in the university ranging from Director of the Office of Sponsored Projects and Associate Graduate Dean to Chair of the Department of Psychology and his current position as Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.
His research interests lie primarily within the domain of legal psychology and are focused on juror and jury decision making. Many years ago he served as an expert witness in a local criminal trial. After that experience, he wondered if his testimony had any impact on the jury or on the outcome of the case. He decided to study empirically the impact of expert testimony on jurors' decisions and has continued to conduct research to learn more about the factors that influence jurors' thinking and their impact on case outcomes. His future work will continue to explore the vicissitudes of jurors' thoughts and behaviors from a social cognitive and an evolutionary point of view.